An enterprise may distribute information to users. For example, an enterprise may distribute data reports, such as documents, spreadsheets, and other types of information to users. In some cases, it may be appropriate to restrict access to particular types of information to particular types of users. For example, it might be appropriate to let an employee in a human resources department view information about the employment histories and/or salaries of other employees. Similarly, it might be appropriate to let a manager in one department view financial information about that department (but not other departments within the enterprise).
To protect information, an enterprise may encrypt information (e.g., with an encryption key). In this way, only users who are able to obtain an appropriate decryption key may be able to access the information. In such an approach, different encrypted data reports (containing different information) might be created and transmitted to different users to ensure that each user is only able to access information as appropriate. Such an approach, however, can be impractical—especially when there are a substantial number of users and/or types of users. Similarly, the rules governing which users should be allowed to access which information can become complicated and require intensive resources to administer.
It would therefore be desirable to provide improved methods and systems that facilitate a secure distribution of information to users. Moreover, it may be advantageous to provide tools and components that implement such methods and systems in an efficient and practical manner